会写诗的机器

你看这两首诗，一首是人写的，一首是电脑程序写的，你能看出真假吗？

Look at these two poems. One was written by a person, one by a computer program. Can you tell which is real and which isn't?

看不出来。两首诗写得都不错，语气也差不多，我猜不出哪首是机器创作的。

I can't tell. Both poems are well written, and the tone is pretty similar. I can't guess which one the machine created.

我也猜不出来。不过这有什么关系呢？我读第一首诗的时候很感动，都要哭了。不管是谁写的，这种感觉是真的。

I can't guess either. But what difference does it make? When I read the first poem I was really moved, I almost cried. No matter who wrote it, that feeling is real.

你的意思是，只要一首诗能打动人，就有意义，不用管背后是人还是机器，真假不重要？

So you mean, as long as a poem can move someone, it has meaning, and it doesn't matter whether a person or a machine is behind it? The real-versus-fake question doesn't matter?

对，诗对我做了什么，这才重要。我心里的感觉，不会因为知道是机器写的，就变成假的。

Right, what the poem does to me is what matters. My feeling doesn't turn fake just because I find out a machine wrote it.

可是我觉得不一样。一首诗不只是几句话，它应该是一个人在跟你说话，把他自己的感情、他的经历，写给你看。如果背后没有一个真的人，这些话是从哪里来的？

But I think it's different. A poem isn't just a few lines, it should be a real person talking to you, writing down their own feelings and experience for you to see. If there's no real person behind it, where do those words even come from?

机器是在模仿人写诗的方法。它看过很多真正的诗人创作的东西，然后自己也能写出差不多的句子。

The machine is imitating the way people write poems. It has seen a lot of what real poets have created, and now it can write similar lines itself.

可是机器没有经历过什么，没有爱过人，也没有伤心过。它写我很想你的时候，它真的在想谁吗？还是它只是知道，这几个字经常连在一起用？

But the machine hasn't experienced anything, hasn't loved anyone, hasn't been sad. When it writes I miss you, is it really thinking of someone? Or does it just know that those words often go together?

也许是这样。但是我读到这句话，还是会想起我想念的人。这个效果，真的发生在我身上了，机器有没有感觉，好像没那么重要了。

Maybe that's true. But when I read that line, I still think of someone I miss. That effect really did happen to me. Whether the machine has feelings or not doesn't seem that important anymore.

我明白你的意思，诗对你产生的效果是真的。可是对我来说，诗最重要的部分，是有一个真的人，在这个世界上经历过一些事情，然后决定把这些事情说给我听。没有那个人，意义就少了一半。

I understand what you mean, the effect the poem has on you is real. But for me, the most important part of a poem is that there's a real person who has experienced something in this world, and has decided to tell it to me. Without that person, half the meaning is gone.

那你怎么知道，写小说的人、画画的人，写的、画的，就一定是他自己真实的经历？他们会不会也是在模仿别人，写自己没有经历过的事？

Then how do you know that what novelists and painters write and paint is definitely their own real experience? Couldn't they also be imitating someone else, writing about things they haven't experienced?

那不一样。写小说的人、画画的人，自己是真的人，他们做的每一个决定都是真的，他们选择怎么写、怎么画，这个选择本身就有意义。机器没有自己在选择，它只是在模仿，在计算。

That's different. Novelists and painters are real people themselves, every decision they make is real, and choosing how to write or paint is meaningful in itself. The machine isn't making its own choice, it's just imitating and calculating.

那如果以后机器也能自己选择，也能说出它为什么要这样创作呢？

But what if, later on, a machine can also make its own choices, and can also explain why it created something this way?

我不知道。也许到了那个时候，我又要重新想这个问题了。现在我只知道，这两首诗的真假，我还是很想弄清楚。

I don't know. Maybe by then I'll have to rethink this whole question. Right now all I know is, I still really want to figure out which of these two poems is real.

那我们去看答案吧，看看你猜得对不对。

Then let's go look at the answer, and see if your guess is right.

好，不过就算我猜错了，我还是觉得，知道背后有没有一个真的人，对我来说，比知道真假更重要。

Okay, but even if I guess wrong, I still think that knowing whether there's a real person behind it matters more to me than knowing which one is real.

我还是觉得，诗打动了我，这件事本身就已经很有意义了，真假反而没那么重要。

I still think that the fact the poem moved me is already meaningful in itself, and which one is real matters less by comparison.

我们两个人，可能都对，也可能都不对，这个问题现在真的说不清楚。

The two of us might both be right, or we might both be wrong. This question really can't be settled right now.

说不清楚也没关系，这样想一想，也挺有意思的。

It's fine that it can't be settled. Thinking about it like this is pretty interesting too.